7.21.2012

the Flammarian woodcut, 1888
"What, then, is this blue (sky), which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?"
from L'Atmosphere: Meteorologie Populaire by Camille Flammarian

"I like the idea of normalcy being supported and encouraged by an
underlying reality. A metaphor for obvious life being backed up by the
reality of feeling, fear, emotion, and the need to defend our beliefs."

And I thought it was a wonderful companion to this quote by Annie Dillard:

"In the deeps are the violence and terror of which
psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if
you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our
sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or
ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and
evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and
inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This
is given. It is not learned."

Soubry - aarrgghh! Do I have to explain the whys to everything I post? I like Annie Dillard. I read her book Teaching A Stone to Talk long ago. I confess, however, that I was unsuccessful at teaching my stone to talk ...